1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an authentication method in a mobile broadcast system and in particular, to an authentication method for identifying a user ID and a terminal ID in a mobile broadcast system and a system thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
The mobile communication market constantly faces the need for production of new services through recombination or integration of the existing technologies. Today, due to the development of communication and broadcast technologies, the conventional broadcast system or mobile communication system has reached the phase of providing broadcast services through portable terminals (or mobile terminals) such as mobile phone, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), and the like. Convergence of mobile communication service and Internet Protocol (IP) technology is now the mainstream of the next generation mobile communication technology in harmony between the latent market needs, the increasing user demand for multimedia services, the strategy of the service providers for providing new services like the broadcast service in addition to the existing voice service, and the interests of the Information Technology (IT) companies that are reinforcing their mobile communication business to meet the user demands.
Open Mobile Alliance (OMA), which is a group assembled to study the standard for the inter-working between individual mobile solutions, mainly takes charge of establishing various application standards for mobile game, Internet service, and the like. In particular, OMA Browser and Content (BAC) Mobile Broadcast (BCAST) Sub Working Group, one of the OMA working groups, is studying the technology that provides broadcast services using mobile terminals. A brief description will now be made of a mobile broadcast system being discussed in OMA BCAST Working Group.
In the mobile broadcast system, a mobile terminal that receives a broadcast service should receive service guide information including description information of the service itself, charging information for the service, and information on a reception method of the service. The mobile terminal receives a corresponding service using the service guide information.
Although a description of the existing technology and the present invention will be made herein with reference to the OMA BCAST technology, which is one mobile broadcast technology standard, by way of example, this is not intended to limit the present invention.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the functional architecture of a conventional mobile broadcast system.
In FIG. 1, a Content Creation (CC) 101 provides contents, which are the basis of a Broadcast Service (BCAST) service, and the contents can include files for the general broadcast service, for example, data for movie, audio, and video. In addition, the CC 101 provides a BCAST Service Application (BSA) 102 with attributes for the contents, used for generating a service guide and determining a transmission bearer over which the service will be transmitted.
The BSA 102 processes BCAST service data provided from the CC 101 into the format suitable for providing multimedia encoding, content protection, and interaction service. In addition, the BSA 102 provides the content attributes provided from the CC 101, to a BCAST Service Distribution/Adaptation (BSDA) 103 and a BCAST Subscription Management (BSM) 104.
The BSDA 103 performs file/stream transmission, service collection, service protection, service guide generation/delivery, service notification, and the like, using the BCAST service data provided from the BSA 102. In addition, the BSDA 103 adjusts the service to be suitable for a Broadcast Distribution System (BDS) 112.
The BSM 104 manages on a hardware/software basis the service specification such as a subscription and charging-related function for BCAST service users, the specification of information used for the BCAST service, and the terminal receiving the BCAST service.
A Terminal 105 receives the content and program support information such as service guide and content protection information, and provides a broadcast service thereof to a user. A BDS Service Distribution (BDS-SD) 111 transmits a BCAST service to a plurality of terminals through interactive communication between the BDS 112 and an Interaction Network (IN) 113. Herein, the Terminal 105 corresponds to a mobile terminal of the present invention.
The BDS 112 transmits a BCAST service through a broadcast channel, and can be, for example, a broadcast/communication network based on 3rd Generation Project Partnership (3GPP) Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS), 3rd Generation Project Partnership 2 (3GPP2) Broadcast Multicast Service (BCMCS), Digital Video Broadcasting—Handheld (DVB-H), or Internet Protocol (IP). The IN 113 provides interaction channels, and can be, for example, a cellular network.
In the mobile broadcast system, a service provisioning function manages user subscription to the BCAST service and purchase of the subscribed service. In addition, the service provisioning function provides additional information for payment and purchase, such as status information of user names. A Broadcast Service Provisioning Management (BSP-M) 107 in the BSM 104 provides subscription and purchase information. Based on the user subscription information, the BSP-M 107 provides charging information of users to the entities concerned, and supports charging for the BCAST service.
The BSP-M 107 receives a request and a report for subscription and charging from a Broadcast Service Provisioning Client Function (BSP-C) 115 through an SP-7 interface 121 and an SP-8 interface 123. The BSP-C 115 takes charge of making a report on subscription and purchase of the BCAST service. The BSP-C 115 can extract provisioning information from a service guide, and can make a request for subscription and purchase or a request for additional information depending on the extracted provisioning information.
Table 1 provides a definition of the SP-7 interface 121 and the SP-8 interface 123.
TABLE 1ReferenceInterfacePointUsage111SP-7BCAST-7Delivery of messages used for asubscription such as subscriptionrequest of user andresponse from BCASTSubscription Management.Delivery of payment information112SP-8Out of bandThe End User subscribes and purchasesthe services through the out-of-bandinterfaces. This is beyond the scope ofOMA BCAST.
In a system providing the BCAST service, in order for a user to enjoy service/content such as servicing provisioning or roaming, a mobile terminal should deliver user ID and terminal ID (or device ID) information to the BCAST service provider for subscription, purchase and authentication procedures for the corresponding service/content. That is, for the BCAST service, various service providers including the existing DVB, 3GPP and 3GPP2 service providers, provide the service. Here, there are various types of users and terminals. However, there is no currently available authentication procedure for identifying the various users and terminals.